March Wrapup/April TBR

Yes! It’s April! Technically it’s supposed to be warm now! Orioles Opening Day is this Friday! Spring is here!!! And I’ve got some new books to read!

So lets dive into the books I read in the month of March. This was a mixed month. Some books I loved. Some books I liked. Some books I wanted to hurl across the room I hated them so much. The six books on my reading list were City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Tempest by Julie Cross, The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan, Survivor in Death by J.D. Robb, and The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon (I’m more than halfway through now! This is a near 1,000 page book, with small type print. But it’s SO GOOD!) I also read Chosen (book one in the Seeker Saga) by Sarah Swan, The Host by Stephanie Meyer, Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, and Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire. So, a good amount of books. Spring break was this month, so that helped with reading them.

Like I said, some books I loved. I loved The Time Traveler’s Wife. Thankfully, when I got to the part that had me bawling I was at home reading it, so no one saw me have my heart broken. There was a little part in the middle that got me teary on the bus home, but it wasn’t too bad. Loved that one. I loved Survivor in Death. Normally J.D. Robb books don’t make me cry. They make me sad, mad, and happy, but never cry. Until this one. I just hurt so much for little Nixie, a maybe ten year old girl who was the lone survivor of a home invasion, her whole family and her best friend were all killed. I loved The Titan’s Curse. Sure I had an idea of what was gonna happen to certain characters, but I loved it. And again, I blew through it in one day. I need to stop doing that. I only have two of those books left.

Some of the books, I only liked. I liked Tempest. It was similar to TTW, but different. And the ending kinda stung. But it was a good book, and I’ll keep reading the series. I liked Chosen. It was confusing, it was intriguing, but it just took so damn long to get to the action. But again, I’ll read the next one in the series. I liked Clockwork Angel. Most of the characters are pretty awesome, and Clare had me surprised at some of the reveals (I waited till Clockwork Princess was out to read this series. I pre-ordered the boxed set a while back and it showed up on my doorstep on its release date.). I’m excited to read Clockwork Prince.

And then there were the books I hated. I absolutely hated City of Fallen Angels. This book was shorter than City of Glass, yet it took me a week to read, and that was by forcing myself to read it. Jace and Clary were stupid. Simon was stupid. God help me, Alec, the steady one who I love for his steadiness, was STUPID! I wanted to throw this book across the room so many times. The only reason I didn’t throw it was because it’s not my copy of the book and I like returning books I’ve borrowed from other people in the condition I received it. I have decided with this book series to just treat it as a trilogy. In my world, the only books in the Mortal Instruments series are City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass. I’m not even going to read the last two. I just can’t go there anymore. They’re pissing me off and I have other books to read. Remember, this is my opinion, and if you disagree and think that this series is the best thing EVER, that’s cool. That’s your opinion, and I respect it. But don’t tell me I’m wrong. There is no wrong or right when it comes to most books (the only exception being the 50 Shades trilogy, and that is just WRONG! But I’m not going into that today.) I also hated Beautiful Disaster. Travis is borderline abusive, he also practically kidnaps Abby at one point, which had me screaming, “Um, HELLO! HE’S KIDNAPPING YOU!”. Really though, I felt these two deserved each other, they were perfectly destructive and dumb for each other. And why Kara, the roommate who pointed out the obvious that Abby chose to ignore, was made into a bitch for doing that, I don’t know. But SHE WAS RIGHT! Yeah. I hated this book. I cancelled my pre-order on Walking Disaster because I just don’t think I can take more of these two, and don’t feel like spending the money to find out. And I hated The Host. No it wasn’t the same as Twilight, but there were moments that just annoyed me. I kinda skimmed from halfway on to the end. I couldn’t take the non-action action and love triangles. Or whatever they were. I was glad I borrowed this one from the library. I don’t have tons of money. I hate it when I spend it on disappointing things (A Discovery of Witches *cough*).

Now for the month of April. Please let this month be one of just loving or liking books. I intend to read five books this month. Yup, a shorter list than normal. School is about to get into that pre-final intensity of projects and papers and heavy-duty studying. I figured I’d cut back for a bit. The first book I’ll be reading is The Battle of the Labyrinth in the Percy Jackson series from Rick Riordan. If it’s anything like the others, I’ll love it. But I’m going to do my best to slow down on reading this one, because after it I only have one left (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!). But I still can’t wait to dive into it.

I’ll also be reading Origin in Death by J.D. Robb. I’m always happy to go back to the world of Eve, Roarke, Mavis, Peabody, McNabb, and Sumerset (who just made me so happy in Survivor in Death). Every adventure is fun and sad at the same time. But please don’t let it be as sad as Survivor was for me. I can’t take another In Death book that actually makes me cry. This is 21 in this series. Calculated in Death, the most recent one, came out in March. It’s number 36 in the series. So maybe I’ll actually catch up soon. Haha, probably not before she puts out the next one.

I’ll also be reading The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen M. Beckett. I have no clue what this book is really about, I found it in the thrift store (oh yeah baby, I pop tags. Books there are cheap, and there are so many!) for $.40. It looked pretty interesting, and I can’t wait to see what it’s about.

I’ll also be reading Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare. I like these books so far. Tessa is a much less annoying heroine than Clary was. Will is very like Jace (does she just have a Jace template she pulls out?), but Jem is a good character. I think if I’d have to pick a “team” (which I kinda hate saying so yeah), I’t pick Jem. I like Charlotte and Henry, so I hope everything turns out okay for them. And I love that it’s set in London in the past, because historical fiction is awesome for me.

And finally I’ll be continuing with The Fiery Cross (Diana Gabaldon, you know the deal now). Things keep staying good in the book, and I’m over the halfway point. So I may even get it finished. I’m going to try and not read any other books until I actually finish this reading list, including this book. I’ll probably bring it to lunch every day at work to read. It’s a little too heavy to carry in my schoolbag though.

So that is this month for reading. Sorry about the rant on the three books earlier. I debated giving those books their own “why I can’t stand them” post, but I think I’ll avoid that. So we’ll see how this month goes!